Suggest adding python2-pip to dependencies to put some oil for non-Python guys, yeah like me. That since
1) pip2's needed to install most Beet plugins and
2) Doc often simply mentions `pip install <plugin-dependency>` which won't work on Arch where pip is python3* by default.

`printf "%s" "command"` is the same as just using `command` straight up, so "git describe --tags --long | sed 's/^[v]//;s/-/-r/' | tr - ." would work fine - although I would probably rather go with something similar to what is listed on the wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VCS_PKGBUILD_Guidelines#Git): git describe --long | sed -r 's/^v-//;s/([^-]*-g)/r\1/;s/-/./g'

Also, please upload a PKGBUILD which actually has the $pkgver in the "new" format. Otherwise tools such as yaourt will always think that there's a newer version available since 20130930.787918f-1 > 1.3.9.r93.g01bb6fa-1.

Hey, could you switch the echo statement in the pkgver() function to something like
printf "%s" "$(git describe --tags --long | sed 's/^[v]//;s/-/-r/' | tr - .)"
to generate cleaner and logical version numbers instead of the current ones. This one makes them in the form of "1.3.1.r35.gc82cd29" (Last tag, number of commits since the last tag, and the commit SHA).

You should also switch the maintainer and contributor lines since you're the maintainer now.